Soil Sequences Atlas

Abstract

To understand the soil-landscape relation it is necessary to study the spatial diversity of soil cover. This variability is partly predictable due to the substantial repeatability of soil units. Depending on dominant soil-forming factor affecting the repeated soil patterns, different types of soil sequences can be distinguished. The influence of relief on the repeated variability of soil cover was first noticed by Milne in 1935 in East Africa. He proposed the term ‘‘catena’’ to describe a transect of soils that are related to the topography. Sommer and Schlichting in 1997 distinguished several archetypes of catenas depending on the mobilization processes and hydrological regimes. The impact of climate on the variability of soil cover is described as climosequences. The diversity of soils due to the different time of development - chronosequences are a suitable tool for investigating rates and directions of soil and landscape evolution. This book provides an extensive database of soil sequences of various types from the following countries: Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The main objective of this study was to present a great diversity of soil-landscape/climate/hydrology relations and its effect on patterns in soil cover. Most recent edition of the World Reference Base classification system was used to classify presented soils (2014). Fourteen Reference Soil Groups are represented in this publication. The collected data will be a useful tool in soil-science teaching, helping to understand reasons of variability of soil cover and influence of various soil-forming factors on directions and degree of development of ‘Earth skin’. Presented data can also be used for comparison purposes.